Recommendations for a recording oximeter

Madalot wrote:

I test periodically now and if I feel something is amiss, my doctor will look at the results from MY monitor and decide if more needs to be addressed.

I think a recording pulse ox monitor is an excellent tool to have, when used with common sense and as a part of an entire PLAN for monitoring your therapy and treatment.

Have the results of your recording pulse-oximeter ever caused you or your doctor to make a change in part of your treatment? If so what was the change?

ChicagoGranny wrote:

HoseCrusher - On the other hand as we age heart rhythms can fluctuate a little and then environment can compromise our lung function a little.

If you have arrythmias and compromised lung function, using a recording pulse oximeter to diagnose and treat is a foolish practice. I hope people with these problems reading your post understand that it is a dangerous recommendation.

If you have arrhythmia and/or compromised lung function, there is a very good chance that they have already been diagnosed by your medical team. The idea behind the pulse oximeter is to monitor your condition and print out reports that you can discuss with your team.

On the other hand if you go to your annual check up with a stack of printed out reports and inform your medical team that the top 3 seem to be different than all the others, and during those nights you woke up less than fully energized, you may be able to provide some valuable information to your team and they can take it from there and do further monitoring and testing if they feel it is required. Without the data your doctor would ask you how things have been going and you would simple respond that things are mostly good. Since you have no specifics to offer, no action is taken.

johnthomasmacdonald wrote: It is rather amazing how what I thought was a rather innocuous question about a recommendation for a recording oximeter can take on a life of its own

And for the record I couldn't be more thankful to cosmo and some of the others here for their advice in taking my request seriously and doing their best to help me out - I would have given up on cpap after a couple weeks or so without the help i've received here

Seems like there is a pack on this forum that likes to cause trouble

I pity them actually. They must have issues in their real life to make them act out this way on the interwebs

Boyce wrote:

Have the results of your recording pulse-oximeter ever caused you or your doctor to make a change in part of your treatment? If so what was the change?

yes.

my wife wasn't real serious with her cpap. i bought the pulse ox to show her how her o2 was dropping without the cpap. it was low so she started using the cpap every night. then i put the pulse ox on to show her how the o2 had come up. it didn't. it was still low with the cpap. we got in to see the primary doc who ordered an overnite study she could use for insurance. that night the ordered o2 test verified my pulse ox, that she was running on low o2. the next morning an o2 generator was ordered and it was delivered the same afternoon. now her o2 is fine at night. if i hadn't ordered the pulse ox we may not have known about the low o2 til it was too late. it wasn't low in her sleep test, but was low 2 years later when we tested it. why? who knows. it may be from a medication that was started after cpap. THANK GOD i didn't listen to the idiots that don't think a pulse ox is a good idea.

Boyce wrote:Have the results of your recording pulse-oximeter ever caused you or your doctor to make a change in part of your treatment? If so what was the change?

Absolutely. It got me in to have a sleep study in the first place. Using a recording pulse oximeter is a great way to convince someone who does not believe they have a problem to go see the doctor. The link below shows a note from August with a sample chart from before starting CPAP therapy to one after. Since being on CPAP, the pulse oximeter is less needed, but I do a spot check every now and then to confirm my SpO2 is still where it needs to be.

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=81012&st=0&sk=t&sd= ... 15#p737808

I have used a NatureSpirit Handheld Pulse Oximeter from walmart. I payed like $200 for it. It works but it is not a good quality pulse oximeter. To get a good quality pulse oximeter your going to pay for it( $400-$1000). Masimo I think is has the best technology but I have not tried their equipment. It's good to get a pulse oximeter that has an alarm on it that will go off when your O2 drops to low so that the alarm will wake you up before you go to long with out air. A pulse oximeter will pick up the O2 drop usuall seconds after you quit breathing. Your going to have times when the cpap is not working for you for some reason(typical minor complications) and having a pulse oximeter is really handy in triggering an alarm that will wake you up. I don't think a lot of the low to mid end cpap machines have alarms that go off if you quit breathing for a certain amount of time. Usually the machine will make note of it but that don't help when you have gone to long not breathing and wake up tearing the mask off and scrambling to get air. At that point your usually sleepy and soon as you take the mask off and you start breathing again you doze off without the mask. That's when you really get messed up. If that happens I just put the pulse ox on and if I doze off the pulse oximeter alarm will go off as soon as the O2 drops from not breathing. My current bipap machine has an alarm on that you can set to go off if you quit breathing for so many seconds. So I set it for say 20 seconds. If I go this long there is something going wrong and its time to wake up. I think most machines will set flags after about 10 seconds which is the definition that is used to flag an apnea. A good recording pulse oximeter is a good tool to have when things go wrong when using cpap. You usually have to twist arms to get a prescription for the good ones. Those doctors are quick to put you on cpap and squeeze you for money for studies and inadequate machines but they don't want to help you deal with learning cpap and educating you how to use it and troubleshooting the problems that come up while using it.

ChicagoGranny wrote:Most B&M DMEs provide a professional oximetry study and a copy of the study results free of charge. (Your doctor has to order it.)

1. If the study shows your ox levels are OK, why do you need to buy your own oximeter?

2. If the study shows significant desats, then you need to find out why and make corrections. Why do you need to buy your own oximeter?

My CPAPing husband bought an oximeter some years ago based on recommendations from the forum. Later I also used his oximeter.

Both of us think it was money thrown away (see 1. and 2. above).

I happen to agree with you. If you are a CPAPer with normal lung function and use the CPAP software, then buying an oximeter adds nothing valuable.

I caught the "oximeter bug" one day reading enthusiastic reports here. The only value of the oximeter to me has been that the bug is now gone and I won't have that money to burn again. That's OK for me because I had the money to burn. But it is not OK for many that are being advised here.

I have seen here many times the purchase of an oximeter be recommended to patients who have no indication of lung dysfunction and are not using the CPAP software. Oximeter enthusiasts need to pause a minute and think less of their toy and more of the person they are advising. Some of them are struggling to get the money to buy a new mask. They don't need to waste money on an oximeter that is not a critical tool for a simple OSA patient.

Now if you want to tout buying an oximeter to test suspect friends and relatives who refuse sleep studies and CPAP, then more power to you! (But no need to call fellow forum members "idiots".)

The OP did create the thread to buy one. Why give him a hard time.

I spend more money on toilet paper a year than the cost of a recording oximeter. 3ply rolls. That is really money down the toilet

cosmo wrote:The OP did create the thread to buy one. Why give him a hard time.

I spend more money on toilet paper a year than the cost of a recording oximeter. 3ply rolls. That is really money down the toilet

exactly.

cosmo wrote:

johnthomasmacdonald wrote: It is rather amazing how what I thought was a rather innocuous question about a recommendation for a recording oximeter can take on a life of its own

And for the record I couldn't be more thankful to cosmo and some of the others here for their advice in taking my request seriously and doing their best to help me out - I would have given up on cpap after a couple weeks or so without the help i've received here

Seems like there is a pack on this forum that likes to cause trouble

I pity them actually. They must have issues in their real life to make them act out this way on the interwebs

You are quite right. The "dirty secret" of CPAP contained AHI monitors is that they can't tell if you are awake or asleep. They commonly record apneas and hypopneas while you are awake and breathing normally. Few people with Sa sleep like babes through the night. Oxygen saturation has been used successfully in a number of studies. Oxygen saturation should be above 90% if you have no heart/lung disease and are at rest. Typically, significant apneas drop to the 90% or less range. Therefore, a recording oximeter will give you a good check on what is going on while you are actually asleep. There is no holy grail in assessing severity of sleep apnea (even lab studies vary significantly from night to night) and you have to put all your info together. Also, if you have a good physician, he will appreciate all the data he can get !

Therefore, a recording oximeter will give you a good check on what is going on while you are actually asleep.

So unlike the CPAP machine with it's "dirty little secret", a recording oximeter "knows when you are sleeping, knows when you are awake"????

Enough reading for me. Except for sleep apnea, I am very healthy and my lungs are strong. An oximeter would be an unnecessary aggravation for me. Just something else to wear in the bed and fiddle with reports.

But anyone who wants an oximeter should buy one without worrying about others' opinions.

johnthomasmacdonald, I hope you get an oximeter that suits your wants.

Thanks for the pro and con discussion.